Man convicted in robbery wants sentence reduced

The Forks man argues he can't pay restitution while in prison.

November 23, 2012|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

A Forks Township man who duct-taped an 80-year-old man with Alzheimer's and stole thousands of dollars of jewelry from his home wants a judge to reconsider his state prison sentence, saying he can't make restitution if he is behind bars.

Mark S. Smolow, 58, who blamed a gambling addiction for his crime, also argued to Judge Stephen Baratta that he's a changed man with a large support network and an otherwise honorable life.

Smolow is serving 21 months to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of burglary and robbery. The son of a family well-known in Easton's business and Jewish communities, he received the sentence Nov. 8 from Judge Stephen Baratta during a hearing in which supporters spoke glowingly of him.

On April 2, Smolow wore a long brown wig and a fake mustache when he knocked George Hyndshaw to the floor of his East Allen Township house, taping his hands and stealing $46,000 worth of jewelry, police said.

Smolow, who had been hired to install blinds by Hyndshaw's wife, was caught after a neighbor became concerned after seeing a strange man approach the Versailles Square home. Smolow ran out the back door, but dropped the wig, which police traced to the Allentown costume shop where he had bought it more than two weeks before.

At sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Patricia Mulqueen argued for a lengthier sentence than Smolow received, saying he preyed on a particularly vulnerable person and violated a family's trust. Mulqueen wants Baratta to dismiss the reconsideration request, which he is scheduled to hear on Dec. 3.

The appeal was filed last week by defense attorney Michael Applebaum, who is also Smolow's cousin. He said that if Smolow was granted a county-prison sentence with work release, he would commit all of the profits he earned installing blinds toward paying back the $36,000 he still owes.

If not, George and Mary-Ellen Hyndshaw "may never see restitution in full, as [Smolow's] business by then will be entirely defunct and [he] will not be able to secure any meaningful employment as a convicted felon once he is released," Applebaum wrote.

Applebaum's filing references a conversation he had with Mary-Ellen Hyndshaw after the sentencing in which, he said, she told him that "she might be amenable to a work-release program."

But Mulqueen, in her own legal filing, charged Applebaum had put Hyndshaw in "an untenable position" by forcing her to choose between restitution and "a proper and just state incarceration sentence."

"The victims in this case oppose any change in sentencing," Mulqueen wrote.